Following a citizen tip, police arrested the three men, former students at the Hanoi University of Science and Technology, after three months of investigation.

At a cafe on June 20, law enforcement caught Quyen handing a fake economics degree from the Foreign Trade University to Nguyen Van B., 29, of the capital’s Dong Da District.

To produce the diplomas, Quyen later confessed to police he had hired a young man identified as Quang, who remains at large. He also enlisted Tuan to counterfeit those degrees, at VND8 million (US$383) per Ph.D and VND6.5 million per master’s. They sold for VND15 million and VND12 million, respectively.

Based on Tuan’s testimony, police then arrested Duc on suspicion of producing false degrees. They seized many diplomas at Tuan’s house, while Quyen said he sold roughly 20 in all.